Troubleshooting and Replacing a Faulty MV

Troubleshooting steps

If the LED is not lit on the unit:

1. Check whether the camera is online on the dashboard.
2. If the LED does not light up on the MV and the camera is not online on the dashboard, verify that the power source is functional using the steps below.
3. If the power source cannot be confirmed as functional, open a support case for help debugging the issue and performing an RMA if needed.
4. If the LED is off but the camera still appears online on the dashboard, the LED itself may be faulty.

If using a PoE injector:

1. Replace the cabling between the MV and the "out" jack, and the cable from the "in" jack to the LAN.
2. Ensure all Ethernet cabling is less than 100 meters in length.

If using a PoE switch:

1. Ensure the switch is IEEE 802.3af or IEEE 802.3at certified, depending on the power requirements of the specific MV model in use.
2. Ensure the switch port the MV is connected to is enabled and has PoE enabled.
3. Replace cabling and ensure it is less than 100 meters in length.
4. Try another known working switch port that powers another MV.
5. Try another PoE switch that is known to be working.
6. Try various ports on the switch to rule out a potentially faulty ASIC.
7. Verify that the upstream switch is not over its PoE budget.

Troubleshooting steps

1. Verify that the camera is powered on. Refer to Section 3 for the troubleshooting steps.
2. If the camera is powered on, verify whether the MV's IP address is reachable via ping on the LAN.
3. Verify the upstream switch port configuration and resolve any configuration issues.
4. Confirm that MV dashboard connectivity traffic is allowed upstream. Details are available at Help > Firewall Info.
5. Verify whether the camera generates any traffic by running an upstream port capture.

Troubleshooting steps

Delay in video stream:

A delay of under approximately 10 seconds is expected behavior. Read the Video Streaming article for more information.

Unable to stream video through LAN (direct streaming):

Each MV camera generates a unique domain name to allow secured direct streaming functionality. These domain names resolve an A record for the private IP address of the camera. Any public recursive DNS server will resolve this domain.

If using an on-site DNS server, configure the server using one of the following options:

• Allow *.devices.meraki.direct
• Configure a conditional forwarder so that:
  • Local domains are not appended to *.devices.meraki.direct
  • Domain requests are forwarded to Google public DNS

"No Video" displayed:

1. Confirm that scheduled recording or motion-based recording is not enabled. If either setting is enabled, no video is expected during certain times.
2. Confirm that the selected time period does not exceed your maximum retention.

Troubleshooting steps

Video feed is all white or too bright:

1. Verify that Night Mode (Camera > Settings > Night mode) is not set to Always On if the camera is in a location with adequate lighting. When Night Mode is set to Always On, the camera becomes much more sensitive to infrared (IR) light, which can cause the picture to appear washed out.

Video feed is all black or too dark:

1. Verify that Night Mode is not set to Always Off if the camera is in a location with low lighting. Night Mode increases the camera's sensitivity to IR light and can help improve visibility in low-light conditions.
2. Adjust the Aperture setting to a wider setting (left on the Aperture slider). In low-light situations, an Aperture set to its narrowest (far right) can produce a very dark or all-black image.

Other video quality issues:

1. Review the guidelines for adjusting the camera's field of view and focus.
2. Review the FoV specifications of the camera model in use to understand expected video quality.

Troubleshooting steps

IR illuminators are not working:

1. Verify that Night Mode is turned on.
2. Check the transition threshold to ensure there are at least 2 lux between the night and day settings.

Camera is blinded at night, blurry, or showing reflections:

1. Check for IR reflection issues. Refer to Troubleshooting MV Image Quality for more information.
2. Reduce the aperture percentage. A high aperture percentage may prevent sufficient light from reaching the sensor, which reduces visibility in low-light conditions.

Troubleshooting steps

1. Follow the steps in the MV Wireless Configuration Guide.
2. After profiles are configured and applied to each camera, maintain a wired connection for 30 minutes after applying a wireless profile.
3. After approximately 30 minutes, set up the camera wirelessly and verify the MV camera has associated with one of the configured wireless SSIDs.
4. Confirm the LED turns blue to indicate a successful wireless association.
5. Check the status through the Network page or the nodes list page by exposing the respective columns.

RMA processing for outdoor cameras

Before submitting an RMA for outdoor cameras, provide three photos of the unit showing the following:

• The RJ-45 waterproof coupling (black cable connector) assembled in its original deployed state
• A close-up of the internal pins inside the Ethernet connector of the camera
• The label on the camera with the serial number of the unit clearly visible